Global Health Track

Directors: Sarah White, MD, and Alexander Van Speybroeck, MD

Brightly colored medical band measuring circumference of patient's arm
MUAC (Mid Upper Arm Circumference) to assess the degree of malnutrition.

“The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world.”
— Paul Farmer

Global health is an important component of general pediatrics residency training as health issues do not adhere to geopolitical boundaries. Nowhere is this more obvious than in Los Angeles.

At Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), we serve immigrant and migrant families who cannot be separated from the diseases and social determinants of health that they bring from their native countries. In many ways, each day in the wards or clinics is a class in global health. However, global health is a discipline unto itself.

The Global Health Track at CHLA spans all three years of residency and is designed to foster personal growth while teaching topics and providing tools to help enrich one’s career.  Residents in the global health track will have the opportunity to engage in local-global, or international projects in a variety of locations that emphasize ethical and sustainable partnerships.

Why Global Health Training?

  • Provide Equitable Healthcare: Children everywhere deserve equitable access to healthcare, regardless of the socioeconomic or geopolitical circumstances surrounding them
  • Enhance Child Health Outcomes: By joining the pediatric global health track at CHLA, you'll gain the expertise to improve the health and well-being of children worldwide, gaining expertise in a wide array of childhood illnesses and health challenges.
  • Combat Health Inequities: This track will equip you with the knowledge to identify and reduce healthcare disparities, ensuring that children in underserved and marginalized communities receive equitable, high-quality care.

Program Goals

  • Provide a comprehensive and diverse pediatric global health education, integrating both local and international opportunities to help shape one's career and perspective on healthcare delivery

Track Curriculum

  • Learning modules aimed at providing a detailed summary of global health topics with opportunities for in-depth learning in specific areas of interest
  • Noon conferences with visiting professors and global health faculty who provide content expertise
  • Participation in a longitudinal scholarly project (examples below)
  • Advocacy curriculum

Modules

PGY-1

  1. Global Burden of Disease
  2. Child Survival
  3. Developing Ethical and Global Partnerships
  4. Vaccine Preventable Diseases
  5. Social Determinants of Health
  6. Practical Barriers to Implementing Global Health

PGY-2

  1. Major Players in Global Health
  2. Global Health Priority Setting: Finite Resources, Unlimited Need
  3. Maternal and Newborn Health
  4. Diarrheal Diseases
  5. Parasites

PGY-3

  1. Careers in Global Health
  2. Child Advocacy
  3. Environmental Health
  4. HIV
  5. Pediatric Noncommunicable Diseases

Additional topics

  1. Pre-departure Curriculum
  2. Malaria
  3. Tuberculosis
  4. Nutrition
  5. Communicable and noncommunicable respiratory pathogens
  6. Global Health Systems and Economics
  7. Pediatric Injury Prevention

Longitudinal Research Project

Residents will work with a CHLA global health faculty mentor to engage in a local-global or international research project. Examples of projects:

Refugee and Immigrant Healthcare

  • RHA: Refugee Health Alliance (RHA) delivers culturally sensitive healthcare along the Mexico-US border to assist displaced and vulnerable communities in Tijuana. Our team of global health residents and dedicated pediatric faculty members has joined forces with RHA to enhance care for refugee children. Together, we're supporting clinics, upgrading the quality of care for this vulnerable group, and advocating for better resources.
  • Local-Global: Over 1.5 million immigrant children reside in Los Angeles, with Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles being a key center for access to healthcare. Despite the known trauma associated with immigration, physicians may lack familiarity with the specific health needs of this demographic and may struggle with how to approach sensitive conversations. In response, a team of global health residents and faculty has developed a curriculum to educate physicians about the distinct health requirements of immigrant populations and equip them with the necessary tools to engage in these sensitive discussions. To further support healthcare providers, the curriculum includes a template and EPIC Smartset to facilitate screening procedures as well as monitoring rates of referral to La Linterna, a clinic specializing in pediatric care for immigrants.

Essentials of Newborn Care

  • ENC: Essential Newborn Care (formerly Helping Babies Breathe) is a training program created collaboratively by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Its purpose is to equip healthcare professionals in low-resource settings with essential skills in neonatal resuscitation and newborn care. The techniques taught in ENC have been shown to reduce neonatal mortality rates significantly. A group of global health residents and faculty from Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) is investigating the efficacy of intermittent remote refresher trainings for ENC knowledge and skills retention in regional hospitals in Uzbekistan.

Developmental Screening in Vietnam

  • PVF: The Project Vietnam Foundation (PVF) is dedicated to delivering medical aid in Vietnam. Our team of global health residents is partnering with PVF aimed at facilitating the implementation of developmental screening programs using the AAP Bright Futures, adapted for use within Vietnam.

Point of Care Ultrasound in Uganda

  • POCUS: Engeye Clinic, located in the village of Ddegeya, Uganda, is a small clinic with limited access to advanced imaging like Ultrasound. We are working together with local healthcare providers to evaluate Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) technology in the clinic. This collaboration aims to integrate POCUS into the clinic's medical services. By combining our knowledge and resources, we hope to provide healthcare workers with better tools for diagnosing patients, leading to more accurate and timely treatment.

Global Health Faculty

USC Global Health Program

For more information on global health, visit USC Global Health.